If you use writing blog posts as part of your online marketing plan, whether on the advice of your internet strategy consultantor simply because you enjoy writing, you’ll know there’s more to it than putting words on a page. A daily struggle many of us experience is writing a great blog post that’s full of information, facts and figures that doesn’t overwhelm our readers. If this sounds familiar to you, and you’re looking for some tips for writing an easier to read blog post as part of your online marketing plan, then just keep on reading.

Keep it Short and Sweet

It’s well known that a blog post made up of shorter sentences, regardless of content, yields better comprehension. Here are a few tips for keeping your sentences short, sweet and to the point:

Keep your sentences between 10 and 20 words in length

Try to address only one idea per sentence. Keep complexity to a minimum.

Avoid writing too colloquially. Leaving expressions out of your blog post can save you a lot of unnecessary words.

Keep your words simple, too.

Aid comprehension of your articles however you can – including using simpler words where possible. Rather than using a longer word because it sounds impressive, use a simpler equivalent so that more readers have the chance to understand what you’re saying to them. For example, try get as opposed toacquire, and so on.

On the other hand, keep your audience in mind when creating your articles. You should already know who your ideal audience are from creating your online marketing plan, so this ought to be easy. Selecting simple words is more than just going for the word’s simplest form: if the more complicated word makes more sense in context, then use that one. It’s all about using your judgement, really.

Don’t get hung up on grammar

So, you’re keeping your sentences short and your words simple. Are you going to be able to keep to every grammar rule in the book? Probably not!

Don’t get too hung up on this; it’s okay to start sentences with conjunctions, write “incomplete” sentences and otherwise shirk the rule book – as long as your writing makes sense.

Summarize and simplify

You may ask “isn’t summarizing usually simplifying?” And I would say, no, it isn’t. You can make something shorter without making it simpler, but that’s not what you need to do when trying to make your writing more comprehensive. As part of your online marketing plan, make time after the research process to go through what you’ve learned and:

Shorten the information so it’ll keep readers attention

Simplify the information, so it’s easily understood

Make it comprehensive in itself. Ensure your readers don’t have to do further research to understand what you’re telling them.

Questions and Answers

Ask questions and answer them in the same paragraph. This will help in aiding comprehension of your blog post; and do it quickly!

When you’re creating your online marketing plan, be sure to detail exactly how you’re going to make your blog post readable, and informative for your audience. Be sure that readability and comprehension are high up your priority list.